Public Comments

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Marcolini, Lesa D.
"mmaury@thetaskforce.org"
Public Comment OMB Number 1110-0011
Monday, May 12, 2014 8:40:00 AM

Good morning Ms. Maury,

Thank you for your suggestions concerning the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Violent
Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) data collection instrument, the ViCAP Case
Submission Form, FD-676.  I appreciate the time and consideration you gave reviewing and
commenting on our form.  ViCAP has a mechanism in place to elicit and capture feedback
from authorized users within the ViCAP Web database, available at all times.  Additionally,
we meet regularly with our National Advisory Board which provides for an open forum to
discuss matters of mutual concern, including reporting procedures.  Lastly, the 30 and 60 day
Notices of Information Collection are published each time we propose a revision to our form. 
This, of course, is the avenue from which we received your comments.

ViCAP’s management staff and Joint Applications Development (JAD) Team met to discuss
your recommendations, and in fact, had already decided on making some of the modifications
you suggested.  However, it is of paramount  importance that we consistently use terminology
that is meaningful and clear to our respondents, our target audience - law enforcement officer
across the nation.

(1)   ViCAP accepts the following recommendations concerning the use of contemporary
language in the “Lifestyle Characteristics” section:

‘Transgender’ will be added as selectable response.
‘Crossdresser’ will be added to ‘Transvestite’, thus, ‘Transvestite/Crossdresser’ will be
a selectable response.

(2)   ViCAP accepts the following recommendation concerning repetitive responses in the
“Lifestyle Characteristics” and “Offender Sexual Practices and Preferences” sections:

‘Bisexuality,’ ’Heterosexuality,’ ‘Homosexuality,’ ‘Transexualism,’ and
‘Transvestitism’ will be removed from the “Offender Sexual Practices and Preferences”
section.

(3)   ViCAP does not accept the recommendation concerning the addition of a separate
question to indicate the offender’s known sexual orientation and gender identity
(heterosexual, gay/lesbian, bisexual, transgender, cisgender).  ViCAP is confident that
the modifications listed above will bring additional clarity and remove redundancy
regarding the victims’ and offenders’ sexual orientation and gender identity for our
respondents. 

Again, thank you for your input on behalf of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Sincerely,
Lesa Marcolini
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesa Marcolini
FBI-ViCAP Program Manager

Phone: (703) 632-4178
Blackberry: (703) 946-2464
lesa.marcolini@ic.fbi.gov